Pack for smoking articles and associated blank

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a non-hinge lid smoking article pack, blank and print layout therefor which blank and print layout utilize a reduced amount of cartonboard and have reduced cartonboard waste from the print layout arrangement. Attempts to maximize interdigitation of blanks is proposed, whereby a saving of about 10% or more of cartonboard usage over a conventional hinge-lid pack can be achieved.

This invention relates to smoking article packaging, and in particularcigarette or cigar packs or packages.

An effect of our more eco-friendly environment is the attention beingpaid to packaging waste associated with the articles to be packaged. Arecent EC directive even goes so far as to impose a financial penalty onthe amount of material wasted in a packaging print layout. A printlayout is the way in which each blank for an article package is laid outon a predetermined width of packaging sheet material. Thus, not only domanufacturers wish to be able to provide packages which use the minimumamount of packaging material at the minimum weight for adequate productprotection and pack strength but they also want to provide a packagewhich on a print layout wastes the minimum amount of material.

In the tobacco industry cigarettes are commonly provided in hard cup orsoft cup packs. Hard cup packs offer the maximum protection because theyare made of cardboard, which is available in various weights, asspecified. The most common cigarette hard cup pack is a hinge-lid pack,which usually has an inner frame located within the upper part of thepack. The inner frame may be produced as an integral part of thehinge-lid pack blank, but is most commonly produced as a separate blankfrom an additional reel of cardboard.

Relatively simple cigarette packs are known, for example, the packsdescribed in GB 1 036 825, GB 880 956, GB 1 330 270 and DE 17 61 738.However, the blanks for these packs are not designed to provide maximumuse of cartonboard and minimum waste of cartonboard in a print layout.All of the side walls are of double thickness in GB 1 036 825, GB 1 330270 and DE 17 61 738, and in GB 880 956, the top and bottom walls are ofdouble thickness. The blanks cannot be interdigitated with one anotheron a print layout, thus increasing waste and decreasing maximum usage ofthe cartonboard. Similarly, GB 1 475 684 depicts in FIGS. 5 to 7 anintegral cartonboard blank with an upper wall opening arrangement. Onceagain, this arrangement has a high cartonboard usage and doublethickness walls.

It is an object of the invention to provide an alternative to ahinge-lid smoking article pack, which pack alternative saves cartonboardfor a blank and on a print layout.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a hard cup smokingarticle pack which in print layout has a reduced amount of cartonboardwastage, and hence a lower financial waste penalty to the manufacturer.

The present invention provides a smoking article pack blank comprising afront wall, a top wall, a rear wall and a bottom wall, said front walland said rear wall being interconnected by said bottom wall,characterised in that each of said front wall and said rear wall has asingle side wall depending from a side margin thereof, each of the twoside walls being located depending from an opposing side margin of eachof said front wall and said rear wall, each of said side two wallsextending along the full length of said side margin of said front walland said rear wall, and optional adjacent side flap depending from theother opposing side margin of each of the front wall and the rear wall,said side flap being of a width which is less than the width of said twoside walls, one of said two side walls or said top wall having openingflap retaining means, and one or more of the other of said side walls orsaid top wall having one or more portions defining an opening flap andopening flap crease margin therein.

The present invention also provides a smoking article pack produced fromsaid smoking article pack blank.

The terms front wall, top wall, rear wall and bottom wall do not implyany particular orientation of the pack and can equally well be replacedby the terms first wall, second wall, third wall and fourth wallrespectively, where each occurs.

Preferably the side walls have an adjacent side flap attached thereto.In the alternative, a side wall depends from an opposing side margin ofeach of the front wall and rear walls, and a side flap depends from eachof the other opposing side margins of the front wall and rear wall.

Preferably the margins of the opening flap are part of the creasemargins of adjacent walls and those parts of the margins are perforatedto enable the opening flap to be pulled back to the opening flap creasemargin.

Advantageously the opening flap comprises an end portion which tapers,tapering aiding the opening flap to be located within the opening flapretaining means. The opening flap may comprise two portions, one portionin two adjacent walls.

Preferably the wall having the opening flap retaining means is alsoprovided with opening flap removal means. Advantageously the openingflap removal means comprises a thumb cut. Advantageously the openingflap retaining means comprises a slit.

Advantageously, the one of said side walls or said top wall havingopening flap retaining means is a side wall, and the one or more of saidside walls or said top wall having a portion defining an opening flapand opening flap crease margin therein is a top wall and side wall orbottom wall and side wall.

Advantageously either the front wall or the rear wall has a margin fromwhich depends an inner flap bottom wall. Preferably the inner flapbottom wall has a side flap depending from each of the inner flap bottomwall side margins.

Preferably, the top wall has an inner side flap at the side marginopposite to the opening flap. Advantageously the inner side flap, atthat margin opposite the side margin of the top wall, is shaped suchthat an opening flap of an adjacent pack blank fits into the inner sideflap shape and the combined width of the side wall portion of saidopening flap extending from the top wall opening flap crease margin, andthe minimum width of said inner flap being no greater than the combinedwidth of one of said side walls and one of said side flaps.

The present invention further provides a print layout for a non-hingelid smoking article pack, the print layout producing less than 22% wastematerial from a layout of about 478 mm by about 577 mm, the print layoutcomprising a plurality of smoking article pack blanks according to theinvention.

The present invention further provides a print layout for a non-hingelid smoking article pack, the print layout having at least a 10% savingin cartonboard usage over the print layout of a conventional smokingarticle hinge-lid pack, the print layout comprising a plurality ofsmoking article pack blanks according to the invention.

Advantageously the saving in cartonboard usage can be about 15% or moreover a conventional hinge-lid pack, and there may also be similarsavings for non-hinged packs.

The print layout for the blank of the present invention provides thesame number of blanks from a board layout of about 478 mm (B in FIG. 3)by about 577 mm (A in FIG. 3) as from a conventional board area of about480 mm by about 600 mm. Advantageously the preferred blank provides alayout of blanks which have all the cut and crease lines in parallelarrangement. The crease lines in particular all fall along three mainhorizontal lines and four main vertical lines (vertical being the longerlength of the print layout). The print layout is also more suited tofast moving cigarette pack cartoning machines.

In order that the invention may be easily understood and readily carriedinto effect, reference will now be made, by way of example, to theaccompanying diagrammatic drawings hereof, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a blank for a pack according to the invention,

FIG. 2 shows an alternative blank for a pack according to the invention,and

FIG. 3 shows the print layout for packs according to FIG. 1 of theinvention.

In FIG. 1 there is depicted a blank 1 for a smoking article hard cuppack. The blank 1 comprises a front wall 2, a top wall 3 and rear wall4. The front wall 2 has side margins 5 and 6, top margin 7 and bottommargin 8. Rear wall 4 has side margins 9 and 10, top margin 11 andbottom margin 12. A side wall 13 and side flap 14 depend from sidemargin 5 of the front wall 2. An opposing side margin 10 of the rearwall 4 has a side wall 15 and side flap 16 depending therefrom. Bottomwall 17 depends from bottom margin 12. An inner flap bottom wall 18depends from bottom margin 8 of the front wall 2. Each side margin ofthe inner flap bottom wall 18 has a side flap 19,20 depending therefrom.Side flaps 14 and 16 are optional, as side margins 6 and 9 could haveside flaps located therealong. This arrangement, though, may not givesuch good board saving on a print layout.

Top wall 3 has portion 3 a and side wall 13 has portion 3 b defining anopening flap 21. Top wall 3 has an opening flap crease margin 22. Themargins 23, 24 of the opening flap 21 which are part of the creasemargins of adjacent front and rear walls 2 and 4 are perforated toenable the opening flap 21 to be pulled back to the opening flap creasemargin 22 to expose some of the smoking articles held within the pack.Portion 3 b of, the opening flap 21 tapers towards an end portion, whichenables the flap to be tucked into opening flap retaining means in sidewall 13, which means in this instance is a slit 25. When the pack iserected the opening flap 21 is folded inside side wall 13 with portion 3b having been folded and positioned inside of side wall 13. Thus, inorder to provide for ease of access to portion 3 b of the opening flap21 there is provided a thumb cut 26. The opening flap 21 isadvantageously held in slit 25 or can be pushed inside the side wall 13,as when the pack is erected.

Top wall 3 has an inner side flap 27. The end of the inner side flap 27remote the top crease margin 28 is shaped to provide two small prongswith a recessed inner part 29. The inner side flap 27 is shaped so thatthe tapered end of a portion 3 b of an adjacent blank can fit within therecessed inner part 29.

When the pack is erected, inner side flap 27 is located inside side wall15. Side flap 16 is located inside front wall 2 and side flap 14 islocated inside rear wall 4. Inner flap bottom wall 18 and side flaps 19,20 are located inside bottom wall 17.

FIG. 2 shows a similar but alternative layout of a blank according tothe invention. Like numerals have been assigned to the like parts ofFIG. 1. The main difference is that side walls 15 and 13 do not havedepending side flaps 14 and 16 attached thereto. Instead, side flaps 30and 31 are found depending from opposed side margins 9 and 6respectively. This arrangement also allows inter-nesting of blanks on aprint layout (not shown).

FIG. 3 shows the print layout for pack blanks according to theinvention. The dimensions are A: about 577 mm and B: about 477 mm. Ascan be seen therefrom only the shaded areas are found between eachblank, thus substantially decreasing the waste board left from the printlayout. On a comparison against a print layout over the same area for aconventional hinge-lid pack there is a cartonboard saving per pack ofabout 4.5% for flat bed printing (Litho) or 6% for Rotary printing(Gravure). When one takes into consideration the lack of an inner framethere is a further about 13% reduction in cartonboard usage over ahinge-lid pack, giving a total reduction in cartonboard usage of about17.5% or about 19% respectively. This is a considerable cartonboard areasaving. This saving in combination with the reduction in waste and hencea lower potential financial waste penalty offers considerable saving toa smoking article manufacturer, whilst still maintaining comparable oracceptable product protection.

Packs according to the invention require a relatively simple folding andgluing operation for machine packing. Furthermore, significantcartonboard savings occur for the layouts envisaged, even over moresimple packs than the present day conventional hinge-lid pack. Savingsof about 5% or more may be realised, and even about 10%, or more.

Filter savings can also accrue consequent to the smaller pack size,namely a decrease in the amount of overwrap film, a smaller 200's cartonunit and a consequently smaller case for the cartons.

As mentioned above the weight of the cartonboard may be reduced for anacceptable pack strength. This would give an increased saving oncartonboard weight over conventional hinge-lid pack cartonboard weightand other more simple packs.

What is claimed is:
 1. A smoking article pack blank comprising a frontwall, a top wall, a rear wall and a bottom wall, said front wall andsaid rear wall being interconnected by said top wall, each of said frontwall and said rear wall having a single side wall depending from a sidemargin thereof, each of the two side walls being located depending froman opposing side margin of each of said front wall and said rear wall,said top wall having one or more portions defining an opening flap andopening flap crease margin therein, each of said two side wallsextending along the full length of said side margin of said front walland said rear wall, side flaps each depend either from the otheropposing side margin of each of said front wall and said rear wall, orone each of said side flaps being attached to a side wall, said sidewall adjacent said opening flap having opening flap retaining means,said top wall having an inner side flap at the side margin opposite tosaid opening flap, and the combined width of the side wall portion ofsaid opening flap extending from the top wall opening flap creasemargin, and the minimum width of said inner side flap being no greaterthan the combined width of one of said sidewalls and one of said sideflaps.
 2. A smoking article pack blank according to claim 1, whereinsaid side walls have an adjacent side flap attached thereto.
 3. Asmoking article pack blank according to claim 1, wherein a side flapdepends from each of the other opposing side margins of said front andrear walls.
 4. A smoking article pack blank according to claim 1,wherein the margins of the opening flap are part of the crease marginsof adjacent walls.
 5. A smoking article pack blank according to claim 4,wherein said parts of said margins are perforated to enable said openingflap to be pulled back to the opening flap crease margin.
 6. A smokingarticle pack blank according to claim 1, wherein said opening flapcomprises an end portion which tapers.
 7. A smoking article pack blankaccording to claim 1, wherein said opening flap comprises two portions,one portion in each of two adjacent walls when the blank is folded toform said pack.
 8. A smoking article pack blank according to claim 1,wherein said wall having said opening flap retaining means is alsoprovided with opening flap removal means.
 9. A smoking article packblank according to claim 8, wherein said opening flap removal meanscomprises a thumb cut.
 10. A smoking article pack blank according toclaim 8, wherein said opening flap retaining means comprises a slit. 11.A smoking article pack blank according to claim 9, wherein said openingflap retaining means comprises a slit.
 12. A smoking article pack blankaccording to claim 1, wherein either said front wall or said rear wallhas a margin from which depends an inner flap bottom wall.
 13. A smokingarticle pack blank according to claim 12, wherein said inner flap bottomwall has a side flap depending from each of the inner flap bottom wallside margins.
 14. A smoking article pack blank according to claim 1,wherein said side flap is of a width which is about half the width of aside wall.
 15. A smoking article pack blank according to claim 1,wherein said inner side flap, at that margin opposite said side marginof said top wall, is shaped such that an opening flap of an adjacentpack blank fits into said inner side flap shape.
 16. A smoking articlepack produced from a smoking article pack blank according to claim 1.17. A non-hinge lid smoking article pack print layout, said print layoutproducing less than 22% waste material from a layout of about 478 mm toabout 577 mm, said print layout comprising a plurality of smokingarticle pack blanks according to claim
 1. 18. A non-hinge lid smokingarticle pack print layout, said print layout having at least 10% savingin cartonboard usage compared with the cartonboard usage of the printlayout of a conventional smoking article hinge-lid pack for the sameproduct, said print layout comprising a plurality of smoking articlepack blanks according to claim 1.